The invention is directed to a method for automatically determining a foreground color for a digital image, in particular, for placing a text or graphic object against a background image.
In many different areas, a text or a graphic object is combined with an image to be displayed together. In these cases, usually the text or the graphic object constitutes a foreground object whereas the image is the background. A combination of the text and image is used, for example, for esthetical reasons or to illustrate the text by means of the background image.
A graphic designer is often confronted with the task of adding a foreground text object to a given background image in such a way that the text is clearly legible. In such a case, the selection of a suitable color poses a problem due to the usually large number of possible and available colors for the text object.
Furthermore, a combination of a text object with a background image is encountered on many web pages where the text is provided on a colored background. However, web pages are to be displayed on a variety of different devices such as different types of computer monitors or of handhelds or mobile phones. Depending on the capabilities of the device or the graphic card, the text and the background image are displayed differently. In particular, a designer cannot exclude that in some cases, the text and the background image are displayed in such a way that the color of the text and the color or colors of the background image are almost the same which makes it difficult to read the text.
Methods for selecting a color are known from different fields. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,718 discloses a computerized color selection system which selects colors based on a user's designation of color impact objectives which specify how colors affect those who view the colors rather than specifying the colors themselves. Other methods for color selection or for evaluating graphical data are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,889,932, 5,424,945, 5,909,220, and 5,615,320, and U.S. Patent Publication 2001/0049591 A1.
Notwithstanding these advances in color selection, there continues to exist a need for automatically determining a foreground color for a given background image. It would also be desirable that such a method for automatically determining a foreground color for a digital image allows an improved representation of a text or graphic object against an image background.